


Nothing Going On Here

by StellarLibraryLady



Series: Star Trek Incandescent Hearts [51]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Brooding McCoy, Confused Spock, Dehydration, Developing Relationship, Doubting Kirk, First Kiss, Hypothermia, Kissing, M/M, Prison
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-08
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-02-25 05:53:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21811132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StellarLibraryLady/pseuds/StellarLibraryLady
Summary: Spock and McCoy are imprisoned together, and McCoy has to save Spock from dehydration and hypothermia any way he can.
Relationships: Leonard "Bones" McCoy/Spock
Series: Star Trek Incandescent Hearts [51]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/636956
Comments: 6
Kudos: 95





	Nothing Going On Here

One thing for sure, they were knee-deep in their own lives. They didn’t need any more entangling alliances, heart-stopping crushes, or even guilt free one night stands.

Spock was being flirted at by Uhura, but maybe more was going on between them. Some days, she played at their relationship as if the flirting was all she wanted from it. Other days, she acted like she couldn’t get enough of him. But with Spock, she could do that because he was more of a sounding board than a real sweetheart. Half a dozen other people would like to melt that staid Vulcan’s reserve, too, McCoy was quite certain. Meanwhile, Spock was a nation unto himself, or so he acted. No wonder Uhura was willing to risk just a small part of her heart. She didn’t have that much at stake.

Meanwhile, McCoy was mired down in his own romantic messes, or at least with the residue from them. A daughter here, an ex-wife there, several broken hearts scattered around the universe. Some he’d even forgotten about, except late at night when the Ghosts of What Might Have Been came calling to rattle their chains of what-you-screwed-yourself-out-of in his sorrowing face. Then no amount of booze could chase them away, just work and jumping headlong into life and hoping it would be enough to dull his memories.

But thoughts about their private lives were the last things on McCoy’s mind when he and Spock suddenly found themselves confined in a cold, alien cell on some weird, out of the way planet that no one had ever heard of before. In fact, it came as quite a shock to find themselves so confined considering it wasn't supposed to be that much of a reason why they were even here. And it came as a further shock to realize that the first thing that McCoy wanted was a return to his old life where he didn’t have to think.

“Where the hell are we again?” he growled at Spock who sat primly on a nearby bunk as McCoy paced. “What chunk of turd planet did we beam down to for some shore leave? Its publicity must’ve been written by some conman or someone suffering under delusions of grandeur, because the Hotel Ritz this ain’t.”

"These were not intended to be our initial accommodations," Spock answered in a calm, almost disinterested voice.

"Tell me about it," McCoy snarled under his breath. He glanced around at their bleak surroundings. “I’ve seen more welcoming places in my nightmares set in Hell. And I'm being generous.”

“If I told you the name of this planet, you would promptly forget it as you already have several times already now, Doctor.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” McCoy muttered as he eyed up and down the bands of metal impeding their escape through the nicely wide door. “Are you sure you can’t bend these bars? Couldn't you make it a test of your Vulcan strength? Show off for the weak Earthling just what a mighty man you really are?”

“Once again, it would be wasted effort, Doctor. Those bars are quite impregnable. So it would be counterproductive to even try.”

McCoy turned and glared at him. “You’re just surrounded by things that aren’t worth your effort to try correcting, aren’t you?” he snapped. “My lack of retaining information. Your inability to bend metal with your bare hands. Life in general. And you think that I’m a killjoy. Ha! Got me beaten in the pessimism department for once and by a longshot!”

“I am not being pessimistic, Doctor, just realistic. I know the limits of my strength and when to realize the options I have open to me. And at the moment, it seems highly prudent of me to sit quietly and wait for rescue.”

McCoy frowned. “That doesn’t sound like the Spock I know. The Spock I know would be gnashing his teeth at the gods and searching for any means of escape, even if it seemed unrealistic.”

“The Spock you know is cold, Doctor, and just wanting some peace and quiet. Now let me rest.”

That didn't quite compute for McCoy. He stepped closer with a frown and studied him. “Cold?! Rest?! What the hell is your problem anyway?!”

“Do I have to have an explainable problem when I just want some rest?” He pulled his arms around himself. “Or some warmth?”

McCoy's frown cleared with understanding. “Oh, hell, I should’ve seen it quicker! You’re going into hypothermia! Probably with dehydration thrown in, too! No wonder you're talking crazy! You're completely outa whack!”

“It is alright, Doctor,” Spock protested weakly. “Just leave me to myself.”

“That’s the last thing I can do! You’re freezing!” McCoy threw himself on the cot beside Spock.

Spock grunted in protest as the cot jiggled. Then he yelped in surprise and struggled weakly as McCoy threw his arms around him and gathered him close.

“Doctor! What are you doing?!”

“Saving your life, you ungrateful idiot! You’re turning a milky green! Now stop struggling! On second thought, moving around is good! Go ahead! Fight me some more! Try to beat the hell outa me! Go ahead! I'm giving you permission to lay a big one on me, and I won't hit you back! Scout's honor!”

Spock stopped moving.

“You did that just to spite me, didn’t you?!” McCoy snapped.

“I did that so you could save your own strength and so that I would not hurt you. Maybe you are suffering from hypothermia and dehydration, also, since you are acting so rashly by clutching me in your arms as if we had not seen each other for a long time.”

“Is this how you act whenever Uhura gets a hold of you? Do you have to fight for your honor with her? Does the lady in question demand to have her way with you?” he teased with a maddening grin to match.

“I believe that the expression is that a gentleman does not kiss and tell,” Spock said primly.

“Well, at least I’ve learned that much about what goes on with you two. Kissing. My, oh, my. Do tell. Wouldn’t the sewing circle ladies be shocked! Tsk! Tsk!” he teased further as he rubbed Spock’s arms vigorously.

Spock sighed. There was no way he could answer McCoy without sounding either ungentlemanly or naive. So he left the statement alone.

And that worried McCoy. He shook Spock. “Hey! You still with me?”

Spock sighed again. “Now, where would I go, Doctor? Surely your arms can tell you better than my lips where I am?”

“Wouldn’t want you to try anything funny on my watch. You gotta stay in one piece until Jim gets here. He’d be mad as hell if I let anything happen to his prize First Officer.”

“He would be disturbed because I am also his friend.”

“Well, of course.”

“Would you be upset if something happened to me?"

McCoy couldn’t keep the grin out of his voice. “Hell, yeah. Where would I find another walking computer that I like arguing with as much as I do with you? Besides, it’d take forever to get someone else trained to the point where I have you.” He wanted to keep things light with him and Spock.

“I would be upset if something happened to you,” Spock said softly.

McCoy stopped rubbing. Suddenly things were sounding way too serious.

“And we have to face the fact that Jim might not find us in time, Doctor.”

“He will,” McCoy reassured him, then rubbed Spock's arm quickly. “You just concentrate on believing that.”

“I will, because you are saying it. But not for any other reason.”

McCoy looked at him and frowned. “You can’t believe in me that much.”

Spock looked at him gravely. “What if I say that I do?”

“Then I say that you might have something more wrong with you than mere dehydration and hypothermia.”

“I know that I do, Doctor,” Spock said softly as he pulled McCoy closer. "Allow me to show you."

“Oh. Okay,” McCoy whispered back as Spock’s lips closed down on his. He didn’t know why he was agreeing or to what, but he was willing to go along with anything that Spock said at this point.

Just as long as Spock didn’t stop kissing him.

And he didn’t.

But eventually they had to come up for air.

“Ah,” McCoy said as he fingered Spock’s collar. “That helping any with your dehydration and hypothermia?”

“Yeah,” Spock answered, and McCoy knew that Spock was bad if he was using slang.

“Then let me give you another treatment,” McCoy offered as he eyed Spock with hooded lids and aimed for those luscious lips again.

“Okay.” Spock met him more than halfway.

More slang. They were both in a hell of a shape.

"I like this activity, Doctor."

"Shut up! And do more with your mouth than running it!"

Spock obeyed. Gladly.

Suddenly there were banging doors and running feet.

Spock and McCoy sprang apart, but not out of each others’ arms. Their lips felt tingly. And lonesome.

“Bones! Spock! Are you guys alright?!” Kirk demanded as he fumbled with the lock on their cell door. Then he looked up and saw them huddled together in a compromising position.

“What’s going on, guys?”

“Nothing,” McCoy stammered as he worked to move away from Spock who was still clingy. “Nothing’s going on here.”

“My personal physician is ministering to me,” Spock tried to explain with slurred speech and a hand waving listlessly in the air. "I have found myself to be quite disoriented and confused."

“Yeah, that’s right,” McCoy said, picking it up. “He’s in dire shape. Dehydration. Hypothermia.”

Kirk swung open the cell door. “I’ve heard of mouth to mouth resuscitation and that liquids can be administered intravenously, but never that liquids could be transferred by mouth.” 

“Ah, new technique, Jim,” McCoy declared as he jumped to his feet. “Some research is being done at a small laboratory on a minor planet few people have even heard of.”

“Hmm. Yes,” Kirk answered as he helped Spock to his feet. “I’d like to hear if Mr. Spock could relate the same information to me. He’s got a principle about not lying, you know.”

“I was just telling him about it,” McCoy said as he grabbed the other arm of the weak Vulcan. “And he wanted to know about how the technique was being applied. So it was only natural that I consented to letting him kiss me. In the interest of science, of course.”

“Of course.” But everything about Kirk was saying that he didn’t believe one word of McCoy’s tall tale.

“Ask him yourself! He can tell you that he kissed me!”

“That is true, Captain,” Spock confirmed with a happy smile. “I most certainly kissed Dr. McCoy.”

“In the interest of science, I suppose,” Kirk muttered as they walked down the corridor.

McCoy breathed a sigh of relief. Kirk was believing them.

Then Spock went and ruined their alibi. And his grin was big as he said it.

“Oh, no, Captain. I kissed Dr. McCoy because I wanted to!”

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing of Star Trek, its characters, and/or its story lines.


End file.
